AGRICULTURE: Amid water crisis, local farmers adapt
NORTH COUNTY TIMES - Chris Bagley | August 9, 2009

The continuing drought may be accelerating farmers' long-term shift away from tree fruit and toward products with higher values, market niches and opportunity for tourism tie-ins, according to an annual survey and interviews with people in the industry.

San Diego County's 2008 crop report, released Thursday, showed reduced production of avocados and small increases among citrus fruits, all of which require heavy irrigation and generally produce less than $10,000 in crops per acre per year. By contrast, production of flowers, nursery crops and shrubbery expanded substantially, according to the report.

Cacti require very little water but bring in more revenue, about $86,000 per acre last year. Indoor flowers brought $499,000 per acre, according to the report.

Such plants occupy just a fraction of the land given over to groves and are far less visible because they require flat patches of land off the beaten path, a contrast to the avocado trees clinging to the craggy slopes that line North County's highways and byways.

But nurseries are replacing avocado and citrus groves in a wide, level swath of Valley Center east of Cole Grade Road and north of Valley Center Road. A number of new horse stables have also popped up, said Gary Arant, executive director of the Valley Center Municipal Water District.

Arant said two classes of avocado growers are using 34 percent and 50 percent less water this year than in recent years, with the drought forcing the suspension of water discounts.

"What we're seeing now is a lot of trees being let go," Arant said. "Hopefully, some of the avocado guys can survive."

Eric Larson, director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, said tourism and food processing are two ways for farmers to increase the value of the raw crops. Both tactics are evident in the wine industry: Vineyards themselves often yield less than $2,000 an acre in terms of grapes alone, but wine sales can bring much more.

Larson, whose organization represents local farmers and ranchers, pointed to the Temecula Valley as a model. The region's wine industry is less established and much smaller than those of the San Joaquin, Napa and Sonoma valleys, but it's closer to the more heavily populated Southern California coast and has become a popular destination for limousines and other day trippers, Larson noted.

He also pointed to the Lavender Fields, just east of Lilac Road in Valley Center, and to the Carlsbad Strawberry Co., both of which sell directly to visitors. The strawberry company uses its fruit in a range of jams and sauces and offers pick-it-yourself buckets in the weeks after its main harvest.
"Farmers are going to have to grow high-value crops or find marketing niches," Larson said.

To be sure, county statistics suggest that new groves have been planted alongside rural estates and in the backcountry in the last decade. But it's an expensive process that doesn't always pay off in times of water shortage, Arant said.

Meanwhile, avocado and citrus trees have made way for houses in more accessible areas.

Growers in the eastern Temecula Valley and the Morro Hills area of northern Oceanside have made proposals to accommodate development within agricultural lands.

Developers sought to subdivide several tracts of land in Temecula Valley after an insect-borne bacteria wiped out more than half of Temecula Valley's vineyards starting in 1999. Developers and vintners backed new zoning rules allowing clustered residential estates in conjunction with replanted vineyards. Riverside County's government approved the rules in late 2005 and the first resulting development in May 2007.

In Morro Hills, growers met with neighbors late last month to gauge their feelings toward new development in the agricultural area. Citing water costs and shortages and the likelihood that coastal real estate values will rebound in the next decade, growers said large-scale agriculture may no longer be the most economical use of the land.

It's a decision that many coastal growers have made in the last generation, San Diego County Agricultural Commissioner Robert Atkins said last week.
"If you're not growing a high-dollar return, you're not going to farm any more," Atkins said.